


Fill-in-the-Blank

by VortaBurnish



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Fluff, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, the challenges of dating normally when you've already reached soul-merging levels of intimacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27808117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VortaBurnish/pseuds/VortaBurnish
Summary: Despite everything, Galo and Lio don't actually know each other too well. But they trust each other, and somehow, the rest is falling into place.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 7
Kudos: 98





	Fill-in-the-Blank

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was for a gift exchange on the Promare Flames server! you can find the recipient and their wonderful art on Twitter @ cinderoo :)

There’s a lot of things Galo has learned about Lio since they started dating. Like how he can’t stand the fire station’s coffee but still stubbornly refuses to put anything in it (hilarious, mostly because of the faces he makes), or the way his hair sticks up at more angles than Galo’s when he first wakes up (adorable, but Galo isn’t allowed to say that because Lio’s too grumpy for compliments in the morning), or the fact that one of his favorite pizza toppings is, in fact, pineapple (heresy, but since he’s otherwise the perfect man Galo will let it slide). The fact is that while he’s never felt this close to another human being, while he loves Lio more than he would have previously thought possible, there are still so many things he doesn’t know, things he probably would have found out already if their relationship had developed in an ordinary way.

It’s clear that it unsettles Lio far more than it does Galo. Lio, who is a prickly ball of fire and nerves and hasn’t trusted anyone like this in more than a decade - he admits as much, one rough night early in their relationship, when neither of them can sleep.

“I shouldn’t trust you,” Lio tells him, half-drunk on lack of sleep and looser-lipped than usual, “and I _do._ I’d _die_ for you and I don’t even know your favorite color, or - or the food you hate most, or your hobbies--”

“Red,” Galo says, and Lio stares at him, caught off balance.

“What?”

“Red is my favorite color. And I can’t stand tomatoes.”

Lio squints at him, his brain taking a few seconds to catch up to this new direction of the conversation. “But you eat pizza _all the time.”_

“So?”

“Tomato sauce.”

“Not the same! Not the same at _all._ ” Galo makes a face, and it startles a laugh out of Lio.

“You’re ridiculous.” He buries his head against Galo’s shoulder, and Galo leans in, rests his cheek against Lio’s soft, fluffy hair.

“Is it helping?”

“No.” Lio sighs. “But also yes. I don’t know. Not used to this. I keep feeling like… like something’s missing, like there must be a catch to all this.”

“No catch. I promise.” Galo shakes his head, thinking about it. “We did kinda skip a few steps, didn’t we?”

“Yeah.” Lio huffs a tired laugh into his shoulder, and wraps loose arms around his waist. “Just a few.”

They make a game of it, after that, sprinkling random factoids about themselves into conversation every day. Lio’s facts frankly often raise more questions than answers, and he has a habit of dropping them alongside a goodbye kiss as he runs out the door to work or some meeting or fundraiser for the ex-Burnish, giving Galo no time to ask _how the hell do you know alligator is your favorite kind of meat?_ And he soon discovers that the bigger things, the important ones, come out a bit at a time, slipping out before Lio quite means to say them, and all Galo can do is be patient and listen until he knows enough to piece together the whole story - like how he knows Lio became Burnish when he was eight years old, that it happened in Detroit even though his family was from London, but he doesn’t yet know how any of those things connect to each other, hasn’t yet been trusted with the other pieces of the story that lie under the surface of Lio’s deceptively casual remarks about his past. He doesn’t push it. They can take this exactly as fast as Lio wants to go, and no faster.

(He’s the same, probably. Lio knows what happened to Galo’s parents, but it might only be because Kray brought it up when they were fighting him. He’s not sure he’d have wanted to talk about that just yet, if Lio didn’t already know. He hasn’t talked to Lio yet about the first and last and only time he visited Kray in prison, about the tatters of the closest thing to a familial relationship he thought he had, and he knows he will someday, but - Lio hasn’t pressed for that either, and Galo is grateful in a way he doesn’t know how to express in words.)

And there are still, after everything, surprises. Meis comes across Galo and Lio one evening in the break room after a long shift, both of them sitting on the old sagging sofa, Lio sprawled out on Galo’s lap and fast asleep. Galo’s got his hand absentmindedly combing through Lio’s hair, scrolling through his phone and half-watching the sitcom playing on the old TV Aina brought in for the break room.

“...Huh.” Galo looks up, and finds Meis staring down at the two of them, brows lifted. “That’s new.”

Galo takes a minute to realize Meis is talking about him and Lio, and still doesn’t quite register his meaning. “What is?” 

“Never saw Boss sleeping so deeply before, that’s all. He didn’t even move when I walked in.”

Galo blinks. “Really? He falls asleep on me all the time at home.” Galo has never been much of a nap person, but somehow he’s become one, because he can never bear to move Lio when he falls asleep like this, draped over Galo or snuggled into his shoulder, and apparently his boyfriend’s deeply relaxed state is contagious. It’s… nice, though. Lio apologized profusely the first few times it happened, but he’s stopped, and Galo’s glad of that. It’s oddly comforting, Lio’s slumbering weight in his lap, and the last thing he wants is for Lio to think he’s being a bother somehow.

Meis’s eyes soften, looking down at Lio. “He was such a light sleeper, back at the settlement. Anyone so much as twitched and he’d be on his feet before he was fully awake. We had a time and a half getting him to actually rest when he needed it…”

Galo looks down at Lio’s sleeping face, gently strokes his cheek with his thumb. “I have a harder time getting him up in the morning,” he says softly, fondly. “He’s like a zombie before work. I’d tease him about it, but his sense of humor doesn’t really kick in until the second cup of coffee or so.”

Meis snorts quietly. “Sounds like Gueira.” He looks from Lio’s face back to Galo’s, his eyes growing more serious. “I don’t know if you can really fathom… how much he trusts you. I’m not criticizing,” he adds quickly, holding up a hand to forestall Galo’s reflexive objections. “I just mean, knowing him as long as I have…” Meis hesitates. “I’ve known him at least half my life, and I think I’m only just now getting to see what he’s like when he feels safe.”

Galo feels a lump in his throat. “I want him to feel safe. _Always.”_ He brushes a few stray strands of hair out of Lio’s face. “No more running, no more fighting… well, except the fun kind,” he amends, and the corners of Meis’s mouth twitch slightly. “He deserves all of it. More than I can possibly give him, really. But as long as he’ll have me… I’m gonna be right here.”

Meis smiles slightly. “Glad you don’t take him for granted. You make him happy, and that… honestly, it means more to me than I can say.” He looks Galo up and down, and nods in approval. “Yeah. Real glad we didn’t burn you to a crisp back when we first met.”

“Wait, what?” Galo says, frowning at that last bit, but Meis has already turned to leave, waving a hand in farewell.

“Get some rest, Thymos. I’ll see you later.”

It’s only a few minutes later that Lio stirs, blinking blearily up at him. “...Galo? How long was I asleep?”

“Hey, firebug.” Galo’s hand finds Lio’s and squeezes it. “Not too long. You ready to head home?”

“...In a minute.” Lio yawns widely, then snuggles back in against Galo’s side, closing his eyes again. “Want to… stay like this. Just a little longer.”

Galo wraps his arms securely around Lio, holding him close. 

“Long as you need,” Galo whispers in his ear, and kisses him.


End file.
